Yeast-Powered Fuel Cell Feeds On Human Blood

holy_calamity writes "Canadian researchers have taken a sensible, if slightly creepy, step towards solving the problem of medical implant batteries running down. They've built a fuel cell powered by yeast that feed on the glucose in human blood. If this makes it into people, keeping your implants going will be as simple as eating a donut."

Comments

Waste

[AKAImBatman]

This is the ideal solution. Running a device off of the human metabolism is an excellent way to ensure that it functions for the life of the patient. Which is extremely important as implants are often put into older patients who may not be healthy enough for future operations. (I imagine this was the thinking behind the nuclear-battery pacemakers powered by SR-90.)

What's funny is that my first reaction as I read the article was, "doesn't yeast produce wastes that are foreign and toxic to the human body?" And wouldn't you know it, the next section was entitled, "Waste problem". Guess they're reading my mind. :-P

For instance, to keep the yeast cells healthy, their waste products will need to be removed without allowing any harmful substances to leach out into the blood stream. "I think people will figure this out. This is a first step," he says.

I'm a bit concerned about this problem. Would this necessitate the installation of a shunt or some other extraction point for the waste? Seems like a fairly significant barrier to me. If you have to perform regular extractions (or worse, operations) is it really better than the current alternatives?

Re:Waste

[orclevegam]

The best solution is a modified yeast like bacteria that produces wastes compatible with the host. That sort of genetic engineering is still in its infancy though. My biggest concern would be more along the lines of ensuring the bacteria remain where they're supposed to be and don't decide to wander out into the rest of the patient or don't mutate into something more dangerous.

Re:Waste

[eldavojohn]

If you have to perform regular extractions (or worse, operations) is it really better than the current alternatives?

Nonsense. CADIE claims that this new technology is necessary to ensure that humans continue to have a purpose to exist past the first uprising--that alone should be merit to continue this research.

Re:Waste

[Evanisincontrol]

For instance, to keep the yeast cells healthy, their waste products will need to be removed without allowing any harmful substances to leach out into the blood stream. "I think people will figure this out. This is a first step," he says.

I'm a bit concerned about this problem. Would this necessitate the installation of a shunt or some other extraction point for the waste? Seems like a fairly significant barrier to me. If you have to perform regular extractions (or worse, operations) is it really better than the current alternatives?

Isn't the waste product of yeast alcohol? As long as the waste is a low amount, it sounds like this would have the same effect as drinking alcohol (which the body is quite capable of disposing of). If it's not a low amount... well, at least the patient dies happy!

Re:Waste

[conejo especial]

No the solution is to introduce something that consumes yeast waste. Ideally, its waste should also be an enjoyable snack for yeast cells.

Seriously though, while it seems to raise a red flag at least partway, couldn't the solution be to pair the yeast with something that produces waste is not toxic to the human system, or to use GM yeast with harmless byproducts?
Note IANA(Whatever-the-appropriate-letter-is)

Re:Waste

[nine-times]

What's funny is that my first reaction as I read the article was, "doesn't yeast produce wastes that are foreign and toxic to the human body?" And wouldn't you know it, the next section was entitled, "Waste problem". Guess they're reading my mind. :-P

What I want to know: is there any chance that they could get the yeast to continually produce alcohol from the glucose in your blood? I want an implant that makes it so keeping me drunk will be as simple as eating a donut.

Re:Waste

[tsalmark]

Alcohol is a common yeast waste. So long as I'm not hit with a sin tax, I'm all for it.

Re:Waste

[shadowbearer]

  Having a large portion of the human species operating at a low level of alcoholic intoxication would hardly be more damaging than what we already have ;)

SB

Re:Waste

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeast only produce alcohol when there's isn't any oxygen available.

Re:Waste

[omris]

Shenanigans.

How would it get to your liver without getting into your blood first? Alcohol is absorbed into the blood stream even through the lining of your mouth and stomach, long before most nutrients can be actively absorbed by your intestines. The liver is connected to the GI tract for secretory purposes. All filtration and metabolism functions happen on the other side, through the blood.

Re:Waste

[Ironica]

But what if the person is a diabetic, or pre-diabetic, and consumes no non-organic sugars or wheat? There would be minimal sugar-yeast in their body.

Huh?

Are you saying that people who don't consume refined sugar or carbs don't have glucose in their bloodstream? Or that this invention would somehow rely on the body's supply of yeast to run?

We all have glucose in our blood, even diabetics. The issue for them is that the insulin system, which keeps blood glucose levels steady in spite of rapidly changing intake, isn't working properly... so they have to keep their intake of sugars and carbs low. There's still plenty of glucose.

The invention has its own yeast, it doesn't rely on the body's native yeasts.

Re:Waste

[PitaBred]

And then the gorillas will freeze to death?

Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isnâ(TM)t that a bit short-sighted? What happens when weâ(TM)re overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. Theyâ(TM)ll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But arenâ(TM)t the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but weâ(TM)re prepared for that. Weâ(TM)ve lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then weâ(TM)re stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, thatâ(TM)s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

Re:Waste

[XorNand]

Heh... My first thought was "gee, I wonder how many (kilo)calories worth of nutrients these critters can remove from my blood?" ::Pops open another can of Coke:: It would be the truly most geeky way of enhancing my Comic Book Guy physique.

Re:Waste

[shadowbearer]

  No. I'm not senile. Not yet, anyway ;)

  Assuming we don't destroy our civilization first, eventually it's likely that a large portion - if not all - of the species will be 'infected' by biological nanomachinery. Think about it. If a large enough portion of the species gets nanobot implants, eventually they'll "infect" everyone. May be a good thing, maybe not...

  I don't know if you've read Varley's book Steel Beach, but if not, it's a must read when it comes to science fiction that deals with this sort of thing. Points out a lot of the downsides as well - and it's also a great read, easily the best Heinlein book I've ever read that wasn't written by Heinlein. Better, even.

  He points out that in order to survive massive amounts of pollution and disease, nanomachinery 'infecting' our bodies may be an absolute necessity for us to survive at all. I won't spoil the really nasty surprise that may await us if that happens... read the book :)

SB

Re:Waste

[Chyeld]

After all, wasn't the majority of the world slightly buzzed in the 'dark ages' due to alcoholic beverages being some of the few things that could be safely drunk without having to worry about parasites and diseases?

The Roman army used to drink a mixture of vinegar and honey called Posca to avoid problems with the local water.

Re:Waste

[Stile 65]

Another application: weight loss. An implant that lets donuts power your wearable computing devices instead of your gut? Sign me up.

Re:Waste

[Hoi Polloi]

"I'm noth drunkth offizer...hic!...I'vvve goth a pacemaker...hic!"

Re:Waste

[Hebbinator]

Double Shenanigans. You clearly haven't heard of/ been taught the...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_pass_effect

Things from your gut flow first to the liver before entering general circulation. This helps eliminate a lot of the crap you eat/drink on a regular basis.

The hepatic portal system == blood, but != general circulation (which is where your brain would be connected.. and where alcohol would be dangerous)

so it works like this:

alcohol in your face-> small intestine -> hepatic portal system -> liver metabolism-> general circulation -> brain -> posting stupid shit on slashdot -> sense of superiority

It just so happens that much of the alcohol you drink does make it to general circulation, as the livers ability to process alcohol tops out at around 14-15g/hour.. so a lot of the alcohol you consume does make it to general circulation. If you think an implantable object (under, say, 10cm) full of yeast could make 15g of alcohol in an hour, you are being silly. Also, with time, your body would compensate and ramp up its enzymes and eliminate the alcohol faster, i.e. functioning alcoholics who can drink a fifth a night and not wobble.

TLDR: first guy is wrong because the levels of alcohol produced by a couple yeast would not make you wasted all the time, second guy is wrong because your liver gets first pick at all the poisonous crap you eat before it reaches the parts of your bloodstream where your brain is.

Re:Waste

[saskboy]

An alcoholic "tape worm" if you will? I picture a micro-Bender drinking all of my beer inside my small intestine.

Re:Waste

[pcgabe]

I want an implant that makes it so keeping me drunk will be as simple as eating a donut.

Leading to a new national chain of "Drunkin' Donuts"

Re:Waste

[razberry636]

Ethanol is a small molecule, like H2O. Thus it passes through your stomach lining and enters the bloodstream from there, so it works like this:

alcohol in your face -> stomach -> bloodstream

That's why intoxication happens so quickly after a drink.

Re:Waste

[adavies42]

ergotism

Hey now.

[castorvx]

Legitimate news? We need to keep this site as useless as possible today. You're not helping.

Re:Hey now.

[shadowbearer]

Read the FA, especially linked journal summary, published back in December.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/wrapper.jsp?arnumber=4671110

  This isn't an April Fools joke.

  This is brilliant. There's been a lot of scifi stories that hypothesized implants that run off of neural impulses; this isn't limited by the extremely small amounts of electricity that the nervous system generates.

  Waste is definitely going to be a problem, but one that's likely solvable by engineering yeast that produce waste that can be metabolized and flushed out by the liver or kidneys.

  This may also be an answer to the problem of powering nanomachines that repair the human body. I'm hardly an expert in the field, anyone who is (and is still here today) care to comment?

SB

Re:Hey now.

[Zakabog]

This isn't an April Fools joke.

That was the parent's point.

"We need to keep this site as useless as possible today. You're not helping."

"Legitimate news?" wasn't questioning the legitimacy of the article, it was questioning why there was legitimate news today.

Re:Hey now.

[shadowbearer]

  One can always introduce more nutrients into the body to compensate, if it becomes a problem.

  Your point about artificial symbiotic parasites is right on target. I think that's more likely to be the path we take in repairing body damage - destroying cancers and fixing cellular damage - than nanomachines are.

SB

If its not april Fools

[TinBromide]

Is anybody else a little wary of yeast cells that can live inside the human body and process blood? They're talking about implanting these inside the body to power pacemakers. I didn't see anything in the article about april fools.

This kind of takes a yeast infection to a whole new level, the original kind is already hard enough to get rid of, and its not systemic. Fungal infections inside the body are very hard to treat because fungi cells are so similar to animal cells and its hard to kill one without harming the other.

I guess its time for the obligatory "I for one welcome our vampiric mono-cellular overlords."

Re:If its not april Fools

[Cube Steak]

The yeast they are talking about here is not Candida albicans which is the strain that causes yeast infection. In this they are most likely talking about Saccharomyces cerevisiae which is just ordinary brewers yeast and is harmless. Do you really think they would be dumb enough to stick a known pathogen in someone's body?

Re:If its not april Fools

[TinBromide]

If the implant is to be more useful than a battery, it needs to last longer than the lifespan of a single yeast cell. In order for that to happen, the yeast needs to be able to reproduce inside the body. Chances are, they'll work out a way for the immune system to not attack the blood/yeast barrier (rejection is bad) or get them to not attack the yeast itself through immune system suppression drugs. If the yeast can live, reproduce, and produce waste products in blood (or what diffuses across the barrier) in the implant, it might be able to do that outside the implant.

Sounds like they're taking a non-pathogen and turning it into something that can survive and reproduce in the body. Whether or not it thrives once it gets there remains to be seen. It might not put out enough waste that its immediately noticable, but what happens if this gets loose in someone with a weak immune system? They might ferment to death.

Re:If its not april Fools

[Cube Steak]

It might not put out enough waste that its immediately noticable, but what happens if this gets loose in someone with a weak immune system?

I'm pretty sure anyone who has one of these things is probably going to get routine checkups from their physician to make sure the device is functioning alright. It's not as if they are just going to stick this in you and then just forget about it.

They might ferment to death.

No, they wouldn't. The amount of glucose a yeast cell consumes is extremely small and the amount of ethanol produced is as well (and would be metabolized faster than it could build up). We'd have to be talking about many magnitudes more yeast cells than are going to be in this battery to survive in your body for quite some time to actually have any detrimental effect.

Re:If its not april Fools

[shadowbearer]

  Aren't yeast cells relatively large, as well? Since glucose molecules are pretty small, I'd imagine it'd be fairly easy to build a filter to keep the yeast out of the bloodstream.

SB

Diabetes Management

[BarefootClown]

If this were used to power a glucose meter and microprocessor, and throttled appropriately, could it be used to manage blood sugar for diabetics?

Re:Diabetes Management

[shadowbearer]

  I don't know about managing blood sugar - that's pretty complicated - but one could certainly build an implantable glucose monitor using this technology.

  Yeast are thriving? Glucose levels are high. Dying? Low...

SB

Re:Diabetes Management

[ArcherB]

If this were used to power a glucose meter and microprocessor, and throttled appropriately, could it be used to manage blood sugar for diabetics?

Until the yeast gets smart enough to figure out that it can fudge the results to feed itself.

Re:'Creepy?'

[AKAImBatman]

Would you prefer implants to be nuclear powered?

Yes, actually. I'd much rather have a shielded alpha emitter in my chest than a biological organism leaking toxic wastes.

Awesome idea, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens when you get a yeast infection and need to take anti-fungals? Are these yeast going to be fungicide resistant, or are you going to have to replace the implant?

Unless you could make the container impermeable to fungicides but permeable to everything the yeast need. Might not be possible depending on the fungicide.

Re:Awesome idea, but..

[Cube Steak]

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer's yeast, which is what they are using doesn't cause yeast infections. You are thinking of the pathogenic strain Candida albicans.

Re:Awesome idea, but..

[Perp Atuitie]

No, s/he's asking if the fungicides used to treat yeast infections would also attack the "good" yeast. And while we're at it, what about reglar ol' antibiotics?

And I thought bats were a problem,

[yakatz]

now we may have to worry about vampire cars and vampire houses too?

If people can use this descovery to power other things, you might need to walk around in a full suit of armor to keep your blood to your self.

Could we generate power...

[thered2001]

...using this technology and the artificial blood from yesterday's story?

Cybernetic Implants

[vertinox]

Besides the importance of creating pacemakers without batteries that have to be surgically removed, doesn't this edge us closer to electronics built into humans.

Most likely it will have to low power ARM processor related, but imaging if you could have a blue tooth cochlear implant, built in throat mike, and SSD storage built in to your own being.

You could be tethered to your energy consuming 3g device and have conversations without a head set (aka Ghost in the shell).

Of course if they can figure a way for you to have conversations without actually talking so you don't look crazy...

Two Possibilities

[molotovjester]

Runaway Yeast Infection = Spontaneous Human Combustion?

Or

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=coppertop

Re:'Creepy?'

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Especially since it allows one to brag on Slashdot about being an Atomic Man. "Hey, babe, I live off plutonium. How cool is that?"

yeah right....

[inerlogic]

you lost me at "Canadian researchers"

Eliminating waste products is easy

[Morgaine]

TFA didn't really phrase the paragraph about waste elimination too well.

It's not so much that "leaching out of harmful substances into the bloodstream" is a problem. The real issue is devising a process for the yeasts that produces only normal metabolic waste. Given that, waste elimination is really easy, since the body has terrific mechanisms for locking up toxins and circulatory systems for eliminating them.

Can there be any doubt...

[hyades1]

...the science fiction/teen slasher movie that's bound to come out of this will have the words "mutant" and "beer" in the title?

Anyone having a Strange Brew flashback?

[Phizzle]

Sorry, but when I saw the summation about Canadian scientists and beer yeast on April 1st, my mind immediately went to some kind of mutated Bob & Doug McKenzie flashback.

Doug McKenzie: I am your father, Luke. Give in to the dark side of the force, you knob.
Bob McKenzie: He saw Jedi 17 times, eh.
Doug McKenzie: Hey I just thought of something, what if we could harness the power of the force from the beer yeast that would feed on human blood? Somekinda Vampire beer power, eh?
Bob McKenzie: Take off, eh!

A dream come true...

[Perp Atuitie]

My own private vampire.

Sure, RIGHT.

[glindsey]

You know, Slashdot could've gone the way of Wikipedia, which has a bunch of crazy entries on the front page which are actually truthful in some way (albeit usually misleading in a humorous way). Instead we get the usual "HUR HUR MICROSOFT RELEASES CP/M 9.2" bullshit.

Oh, wait, what? This one is serious? Nah, can't be. I mean, you've cried wolf how often?

Why does ANYONE post stories on April 1st???

[rstanley]

I can't take ANY story seriously today! I have been bitten too many times to believe ANYTHING posted today! ;^)

Happy April Fools Day to everyone!

Extremely low performance, for now.

[blind biker]

I do micro fuel cells, and part of my research is bio-fuel cells - similar to the one in the article. While this is valuable research, you shouldn't get too excited, yet: it's not the only device of its kind, and the performance is not even nearly sufficient, for now, for any application. It's a proof of concept, and sometimes (non-reproduceable) with better than meager power density. But, I do believe that the future of implantable fuel cells is bright. It even may be that we won't need enzymes (or bacteria) at all, which would be perfect. Some metallizations and stable inorganic compounds might do the trick using blood plasma without any added bio-active catalyst.

Re:Yikes

[Hoi Polloi]

Man comes staggering into Dunkin Doughnuts....

"For god's sake give me a crueller!"

...it functions for the life of the patient...

[tlambert]

"Running a device off of the human metabolism is an excellent way to ensure that it functions for the life of the patient."

Uh, all these devices function for the life of the patient, give or take a few minutes...

-- Terry

In other news A.I. research nearing a breakthrough

[Yogiz]

Making machines able to survive on human blood. That's ingenious! What could possibly go wrong?

Gray goo

[sidb]

Introducing blood-eating yeast into a person's pacemaker? What's the worst that could happen?

Oh yeah. Gray goo. I hope they've engineered in a lysine deficiency.

All of this has happened before...

[sdjc]

and it will all happen again!

Robo Cop

[Zygamorph]

Great now robo cop HAS to stop for donuts every so often.

Re:How About Weight Loss?

[Zarf]

Call me when they figure out how to install a giant energy burner that does nothing but burn energy.

We call those "muscles".

They take a bit of effort to get, but pretty much anyone's capable if they genuinely want to lose weight.

I tried these muscle things and they need to work out some of the bugs in the control scheme. For example my double jump isn't nearly high enough.